High Hopes (1988) 720p Dir: Mike Leigh Phil Davis Leslie Manville

Comedy | Drama | UK | 112min | Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Phil Davis, Ruth Sheen, Edna Doré, Philip Jackson, Heather Tobias, Lesley Manville A 1988 British comedy drama film directed by Mike Leigh, focusing on an extended working-class family living in King's Cross, London. The film primarily examines Cyril (Philip Davis) and Shirley (Ruth Sheen), a motor-cycle courier and his girlfriend, along with their friends, neighbours, and Cyril's mother and sister. Despite staying true to Leigh's down-at-the-heel, realist style, the film is ultimately a social comedy concerning culture clashes between different classes and belief systems. As a proud marxist in Thatcher's England, Cyril knows exactly who he is, and he's happy with it, but he has no idea who he should be and what he should do. He is as sincere as he is sarcastic, as compassionate as he is condescending because he has no clue what the world needs from him: neither his loving girlfriend with similar beliefs but different needs, nor his unstable sister or his apathetic mother.